telix y(e)arn

telix y(e)arn is a sound installation with a mechanical apparatus made from the motor, gears and rollers of a deconstructed fax machine. It advances a looped graphic score. And as light shines through patterns cut into the scroll, wall-mounted, photo-sensitive sound modules are triggered.

The exhibition’s formal and thematic source was a series of embroideries commissioned by Ostrom from artisans in a small fishing village in the northeast of Brazil.

The modified greeting-card sound circuits play processed field recordings of the lace-making process, the ocean, bits of conversation, and composed musical snippets. The wooden bobbins used by the lacemakers made a lovely, organic rhythm.

The motion of the scroll, the timing of the light and its blinking patterns are composed and choreographed – programmed into an Arduino microcontroller.